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School doubled lawyer's salary, boosting pension

BY SANDRA PEDDIE AND EDEN LAIKIN | sandra.peddie@newsday.com
eden.laikin@newsday.com

9:52 PM EST, March 5, 2008

Hewlett-Woodmere school officials more than doubled the salary of a private attorney on its payroll in his last two years at the district -- substantially boosting his New York State pension -- while paying his law firm more than $400,000 in additional fees during those same years, district records show.

The attorney, Jerome Ehrlich, was a partner in the Garden City law firm of Ehrlich, Frazer & Feldman at the time. School district records show that Ehrlich's salary jumped from $25,000 in 2004 to $60,000 in 2005 and 2006. School records show he worked fewer days for the district after the raise.

"That's convenient; looks like a pension booster to me," said E.J. McMahon, director of the Albany-based Empire Center for New York State Policy, a pro-business think tank. "It's hard to figure out how they would justify it unless they were getting twice as many hours" or doing Ehrlich a favor.

Ehrlich is one of three Long Island attorneys under federal and state investigation because of their financial arrangements with school districts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service and New York Attorney General all launched probes after Newsday reported last month that five school districts falsely reported to the state that attorney Lawrence Reich worked full time at each one, enabling him to get a pension of approximately $61,000 a year. While employing him, the districts were also paying his law firm more than $2.5 million in fees.

The third attorney is Carol Hoffman, a partner at Jaspan Schlesinger Hoffman, in Garden City.

District Superintendent Les Omotami did not return calls for comment yesterday. Howard Weinick, the school board president, said in a written statement that the board's contract with Ehrlich was "cost-effective and operationally efficient." Weinick did not respond to e-mails asking why the board approved Ehrlich as an employee in the first place.

The amount of a New York State pension is roughly calculated by multiplying the number of years worked by the average of the three highest consecutive years of salary. Ehrlich, 71, retired from the district in June 2006 with a pension of $34,029.

Emily DeSantis, spokeswoman for the state comptroller, which administers public pensions, said her office would not comment on the increase in Ehrlich's pay, nor would she calculate how much Ehrlich's pension would have been without the increase.

Ehrlich's contract shows that the district also agreed to pay 100 percent of his health insurance upon his retirement, as well as that of his wife, for life.

State and district records show that Ehrlich worked fewer days after his salary was increased by the school board. In 2004, he worked 207.50 days, and in 2005, he worked 173 days.

In an e-mail to Newsday, Weinick disputed those numbers, saying that the district's payroll software "resulted in reporting errors to the state." He said Ehrlich should have been reported as having worked only 130 days.

Ehrlich's lawyer, John Carman of Garden City, said Ehrlich did, in fact, increase his workload by having regular office hours one day a week at the district.

"He was getting $60,000 to be available one day a week, which isn't extraordinary, given what attorneys make these days," he said.

He declined to say whether Ehrlich asked for the raise.

By working at Hewlett-Woodmere and, over the years, the Bellmore-Merrick High School and Great Neck school districts, as well, Ehrlich was able to get credit for a total of 381/2 years in the public pension system -- even though he was in private practice the entire time. It is that financial arrangement that is at the heart of the federal and state investigations.

Internal Revenue Service rules bar an individual from getting paid as both an employee and independent contractor for the same work.

District vendor records obtained by Newsday show that Hewlett-Woodmere paid his law firm, Ehrlich, Frazer & Feldman, $155,498 in 2004, $203,105 in 2005 and $211,157.15 in 2006.

In a letter to school officials, Ehrlich's partners -- Florence Frazer and Jacob Feldman -- said Ehrlich was a school district employee before the formation of Ehrlich, Frazer & Feldman in 1992. They said there was no double billing.

Ehrlich joined the Hewlett-Woodmere payroll in 1971. He was reported as full time starting in 1978 and remained an employee until 1987. He was back on the district's payroll from 1994 until he retired in June 2006. During that time -- from 1978 to 1985 -- Ehrlich also became an employee of the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District, reported mainly as full time.